BernCo commissioners take a second look at paid time off law

ALBUQUERQUE, NM.— Some Bernalillo County Commissioners want to take a second look at the new law that requires business owners to give their employees paid time off.

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The new law, which will go into effect in 2020, requires businesses with at least two employees to give their workers one hour of paid time off for every 32 hours they work.

Bernalillo County Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said the new law is unfair to some small mom-and-pop shops.

“I do truly believe someone who works hard should earn paid time off and if there's businesses out there not doing that, I think it's wrong,” Quezada said.

Quezada was initially against creating different rules for smaller business when he voted for the ordinance in August. Now, he wants to change that.

"When I spoke that night, I told everybody that I was going to continue to work on this until we got it right,” Quezada said. “You know, we write things on paper for a reason. We don't chisel them in stone for a reason. It's a resolution and you go back and you can change and fix things as you go."

Quezada wants businesses with 2 to 10 employees to be required to give its employees 28 hours of paid time off. Businesses with 11 to 34 employees would be capped at 44 hours. Companies with 35 or more employees would have to offer their employees 56 hours of paid time off.

"I think there might still be amendments coming in on how many hours we consider would be fair and how many employees would make the tier difference between 1, 2 and 3,” Quezada said.

Quezada said he hopes this will give the city of Albuquerque a good idea of what to be on the lookout for when council members consider passing their own paid time off law.